End of the world

My dad is a huge fan of apocalypse stories - I'm not so much, but I grew up on them, so I have a bit of a soft spot for them from time to time. I don't really understand what his fascination is with the world ending, and why he wants to see it so badly, but it's just what he's always wanting to see. We say 2012 when it came out for pete's sake - god, that movie was horrible. But we sat through the whole thing, even though it didn't take long to realize how bad it was, because it was the end of the world and Dad had to see it.

Personally, I'm more interested in what happens after the end of the world. The way that society breaks down, man made structures are destroyed and overtaken by nature as the years go by and there's no one left to do anything about it. A few people, of course, who were fortunate enough to avoid the tides of war and famine and natural disaster would be around, but they certainly wouldn't have the power to be able to have any impact on the world. They would just be trying to get by. Becoming hunter gatherers once again as the world seemingly becomes anew.

I find that to be the fascinating. What kind of person would you have to be in order to survive in that kind of world? Would you have to force the world to change around you, or would you be the one to bend first? Would the kind of people who aren't set to be in that kind of world with that kind of mindset be killed off, or would they be forced to adapt? How much does it depend on the person, and how much is it just a question of what one will do to survive?

I can see an argument for the enjoyment of apocalypse stories being that they test the boundaries and limits of the human mind and body, but I believe that everything that happens after that would test those boundaries and limits far more. It is one thing to see the world collapsing and failing around you. It is another thing entirely to have already witnessed it and lived to tell the tale. Especially when there is no saying how many people that you know and care about made it through with you.

Games like The Last of Us have incredible worlds like this and explore these well, even if I don't like them as a whole. I want more games that do this well. The whole zombie thing really hurts the concept.